Journey to Happiness
by America'sHat
Summary: Gilbert lives an average life, but he isn't happy; the girl he loves, Eliza, married another man. After being forced to go on a blind date, thanks to Francis, he is offered a once in a lifetime chance. He can go back to High School and try to change his timeline so he can be with her! Will he finally get his happily forever after or is he doomed to be without her forever?
1. Chapter 1

Gilbert was your average guy. Went to high school and college, got a job, and lived. He could be quite a trouble maker, especially with his friends Francis and Antonio. His life was normal, his days were fine, he had friends. But he wasn't happy. He could remember the root of his unhappiness, it was a subject he didn't want to dwell on but none the less he found himself thinking about it. The wedding.

* * *

"Gilbert!" Eliza called as she ran over toward him. Gilbert's face immediately brightened as she ran up.

"Hey Eliz-" Gilbert started but Eliza cut him off.

"I have wonderful news!" Eliza gushed, "Roderich proposed last night!" Gilbert's smile faded slightly.

"Oh," He said, "I didn't realize you guys were that serious."

"Is something wrong Gilbert? I know you and Roderich don't get along that well, but-"

"No, no that's awesome news; I hope the two of you will be very happy together." Gilbert said, but his heart wasn't in it. Eliza never even noticed how his smile didn't touch his eyes.

* * *

Every day since then, Gilbert had just been going through the motions. He had gone to the wedding, of course. He had controlled himself. He allowed himself one last dance with Eliza. He sometimes stopped by their household but it sickened him to see the girl who was once so fierce and independent changed into someone feminine and dependent. She was happy though, and that was the only thing that kept him sane.

* * *

"Mon ami!" Francis called to Gilbert across the cafe. Gilbert chuckled as his friend sauntered up. "It's been so long!"

"It's been 2 weeks Francis," Gilbert corrected, "That's not that long."

"But mon ami! I used to see you every single day! Now seeing you only sometimes fills my heart with an overflow of emotion!" Francis exclaimed dramatically while sliding into the booth.

"I know you're upset about the lack of my awesome presence, but that doesn't mean you have to act so melodramatic," Gilbert smirked.

"Melodramatic! Such an insult to my fine acting skills!" Francis exclaimed, but he mirrored Gilbert's smirk.

Gilbert smiled and extended his hand across the table, this caused the Frenchman to smile and shake his hand.

"I see you still remember some of the French customs," Francis grinned.

"Yep! I'm a smart Prussian!" Gilbert exclaimed.

"Well you know we are good friends, technically we should faire la bise!" Francis complained.

"Look I don't care what you call it, it's kissing and it's weird," Gilbert responded. Francis pouted. They went silent for a few seconds, before Francis decided to bring up 'that' topic.

"So have you had any hot dates recently?" Francis asked. Gilbert sighed.

"You know I'm not really into the whole dating scene anymore," Gilbert answered harshly.

"I just wondered mon ami! I just want you to be happy, you've been so sad and you're like un frere to me, a… bruder," Francis defended, his tongue tripping over the strange German word.

"Francis, you're like my bruder too. But it's too soon." Gilbert explained.

"Gilbert, it's been 6 years since the wedding. It's time you moved on!" Francis exclaimed.

"I'm not ready to just move on," Gilbert replied.

"Non! I will not stand for this!" Francis yelled slamming his hands down on the table, making Gilbert jump. "I have let you grieve long enough! You'll never get over her unless you try."

"But Francis-"

"Oui, I know you loved her but you're drained of life these days! Don't let love kill you, embrace it and then let it go!" Francis told him.

"Francis… I still love her," Gilbert said softly.

"Then why haven't you told her." Francis asked gently.

"I just want her to be happy." Gilbert answered firmly.

"I just want you to be happy." Francis countered.

"I get the feeling you have something planned," Gilbert stated.

"Well of course!" Francis smirked.

* * *

Gilbert stared down at the paper in his hand, Francis' careful, delicate handwriting swirled around his paper laying out the details of a date Francis had planned for him.

Gilbert sighed he didn't really want to be on this date, but he also didn't want to be alone with his thoughts. He looked around looking for the girl that was described on the paper. He eyed a smallish pretty girl with long blond hair pulled up into pigtails and red hair clips keeping her hair out of her eyes. Francis' notes said the girls name was Maddie Williams.

"Er Hello, my name is Gilbert Beilschmidt, and you must be Maddie?"

"Oh um, yes!" She said quietly. "Are you who I'm here to go to the movies with? A man, Francis, told me it would be either him or someone else. Oh but I don't mean to pry! I'm terribly sorry!" She bowed slightly in apology. She was cute; Gilbert admitted to himself, Francis was still very good at playing matchmaker, maybe too good. Gilbert sighed, he could fall in love with this girl, they could be each other's everything, but there was one problem. She wasn't Elizaveta Héderváry. She was Maddie Williams.

"I'm the one who should apologize," Gilbert admitted to her, "I'm not really looking for a relationship, although Francis thinks otherwise." To his surprise she looked up at him and smiled.

"Really? I didn't really want to come on this date either to tell you the truth. I've got my eyes on someone else," She bit her lip for a minute before continuing, "Francis told me you love a married woman. Is that true?"

"Um, well yeah. Of course when you put it that way it sounds a little creepy," Gilbert told her. She smiled gently.

"It's not too creepy; after all, I'm in love with a man who will never settle down, so I understand," She told him quietly.

"Well, I'm not doing anything else tonight; do you maybe want to go eat somewhere?" Gilbert asked.

"I'd like that," she said smiling, "We may not be looking for a relationship but we could be friends."

"That would be pretty awesome," Gilbert told her.

* * *

"So tell me about this Elizaveta? Why do you love her? What's your story?" Maddie asked. The two were sitting in a fairly nice restaurant talking over dinner.

"Well, she's gorgeous; however, she never used to show that side of her, she was adventuresome, daring, independent, and she was mine. We were best friends for years we didn't need anyone but each other. Then we went to high school, and she became friends with a guy named Kiku but they were just friends, I became friends with Francis and this other guy named Antonio, things were awesome! Then came the new kid Roderich. He was super smart, super fancy, and super good at music. He was pretty cool at first but then I started to notice Eliza giving him adoring glances across the room and him gazing at her when she wasn't looking. And before I knew it, they were dating." Gilbert chuckled slightly, "They both loved each other, even an idiot like myself could see that. So I never told her how much I love her, because she was happy and I didn't want to ruin that." He smiled sadly.

"Awwww that's _so_ sweet." Maddie cooed. "Uh well, I mean, it sucks that you didn't end up together but still!" This made Gilbert chuckle.

"Well enough about my sob story, let's hear yours! Who's this mystery guy you love?"

"Oh um well I'd be way too embarrassed to talk about him," Maddie said blushing.

"Don't worry about it you don't have to tell me." Gilbert told her. She giggled hesitantly and then worked on finishing her meal, Gilbert followed suit and they finished their meals in a comfortable silence.

"Hey Gilbert?" Maddie asked as she put down her fork.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"If you had a way to go back to high school and change your timeline so that you could have a chance with Eliza, would you do it?" She asked hesitantly.

"Well, yeah. Of course I would," He answered, "But that's impossible." He brought his fork up to his mouth to take one last bite of his food.

"Well actually, it's not." He dropped his fork. "I know someone who could make it possible." The fork clattered to the floor.

* * *

"Maddie Williams! How many times must I tell you?! You can't tell just anyone about my powers! You're going to bring back the witch hunting days!" An angry looking blond British man yelled.

"I'm sorry Arthur but I wanted to help him, and I knew you could!" He brushed past Maddie and yanked a hair out of Gilbert's head.

"Ow hey! What the heck?" Gilbert complained.

"Oh hush up! It's for the potion," Arthur told him whizzing past them again to grab some 'eye of newt'. After he dumped that into his big black cauldron he finally stopped rushing around and stared closely at Gilbert.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Arthur questioned, "You don't want to wait and see what else this timeline has to offer?"

"I know what this timeline has to offer, misery and despair for the rest of my life." He replied flatly finally admitting that to himself.

"Alright then step into the circle," He said gesturing toward a weird circle with a strange design drawn onto the floor. Arthur ran to each of the candles surrounding the circle and filled the bowls under each of them with potion and lit them.

"Alright. Before I do this, Gilbert, you should know my name is Arthur Kirkland and I've lived in this house all my life. Now I hope you're ready," Arthur spoke some weird ancient words mixed with the names of some famous people and the circle started to glow. Maddie watched quietly from the sides watching her friend be engulfed in white light and then Gilbert was gone.

* * *

**A/N:**

**This idea has been floating around my head and my ipod for probably 3 months now, but once I became super busy I lost creativity for it. Now that creativity is back and I'm really excited to be writing it. This is one of those stories that I know exactly what's going to happen at the end but the middle is a mystery, so it should be rather fun to write ;)**

**Thanks to the lovely BlossomingLuck for Beta reading this chapter, it was much appreciated.**

**For those that follow me, no this has nothing to do with my previous story, I will hopefully update that soon.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.**

**No flames please! Do not repost this anywhere, plagiarism is wrong.**

**Human name****s g****uide-**

**Gilbert- Prussia**

**Elizaveta- Hungary**

**Roderich- Austria**

**Francis- France**

**Maddie- fem!Canada [Yes I know a lot of people dislike the fem!countries, but it was necessary that I put her in here]**

**Arthur- Britain**


	2. Chapter 2

Gilbert was skipping through the gumdrop forest singing "I'm a Single Lady", he felt better than he had in years he hoped this day would never end! Then a loud sound was heard shattering the peaceful forest and making Gilbert jerk awake.

"Gilbert Beilschmidt! If you fall asleep in my class one more time, you'll be in detention for the next month!" His math teacher yelled.

"I'm sorry, sir!" He exclaimed shocked. Where on earth was he? He glanced around, noticing a few people he hadn't seen in a long time, not since high school anyway. This could only mean one thing. He grabbed some paper and quickly scribbled a note on it.

'What's todays date?'

Then he crumpled it up and threw it to Francis who was sitting right next to him. He received the note back in the matter of seconds. He ignored the first part of the date skipping toward the year. Yup Gilbert was right he was back in his senior year of high school and he knew exactly what he needed to do. He had to tell Eliza how he felt before Roderich did, he wouldn't give her up so easily this time.

* * *

After school was out Gilbert ran to Francis' locker.

"Hey Fran_cine_! I need some assistance!" Gilbert called.

"How may I be of assistance Gil_lian_?" Francis asked twisting the knob on his locker and chewing on some gum he had no doubt stolen off some girl. The Prussian glanced around before responding.

"I want to ask Elizaveta out," Francis started choking.

"Breathe Francis!" Gilbert reminded him as he slapped him on the back to hopefully stop his friend from dying.

"W-what did you just say?" Francis asked in shock.

"I want to ask out Elizaveta and I was really hoping to do it soon," Gilbert reexplained.

"Are we talking about the same Elizaveta who you claimed to hate only 8 hours ago?"

"Elizaveta Héderváry, yeah that's the one," Gilbert responded like it was no big deal, "Are you going to help me or not?"

"Oh I'll definitely help you mon chere. I'm just shocked you finally admitted you liked her."

"Ok awesome. Let's come up with an awesome plan at my place! I'm going to go find Antonio, I'll meet you in my room, I assume you know how to get in."

"Of course. Honhonhonhon~ "

"This is awesome the Bad Touch Trio is back in action!" Gilbert shouted, fist pumping the air.

"What do you mean back in action? We've never been out of action," Francis said giving his friend a weird look.

"Uh, never mind I'll catch you later Francis." Gilbert ran down the hall towards Antonio's locker.

"A bientot!" He called after his friend, "That was strange…" He murmured pushing his locker closed.

* * *

"Ok so Gilbert, are you going to explain to me why you all of the sudden admitted to the fact that you like Elizaveta? Because this is quite unlike you," Francis asked once the 3 friends had got settled around Gilbert's 'awesome' room.

"To be quite honest I wasn't sure if I was asleep or not when you told me," Antonio admitted, "I assumed I would wake up any minute still in German class with Frau screaming nonsense at me!"

"Well, I- uh… you guys wouldn't believe me if I told you. It's some crazy stuff…" Gilbert thought back to his past life in a soon to be different timeline, "Let's just say I would rather have her in my awesome presence then stay in denial, also life is screwed up and if I hadn't done something about it I still wouldn't have her." Gilbert stared past his friends and kept his eyes on the large picture of Eliza and Gilbert as children he had hanging on his wall.

"Well then, let's get started shall we!" Francis announced, ignoring the strangeness of Gilbert's previous statement.

"Si! Operation get Gil his girl is a go," Antonio officially announced.

"Ok so first I was thinking that…"

* * *

"Hey, Eliza," Gilbert greeted the fearless Hungarian.

"Gilbert," She greeted sharply, and then turned back to her locker, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to stop by and apologize for the whole lizard stunt yesterday," Eliza paused, then turned to face Gilbert.

"What?"

"And I guess while I'm at it I would like to apologize for all the other mean things I've pulled over the years," Gilbert continued.

"Gilbert, are you feeling alright?" Eliza asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"I'm going to try to stop being completely rude to the people that are almost as awesome as me," He grinned his 'awesome' grin, "I'll be going, bye," Gilbert turned and walked away, leaving Eliza there frozen in shock at the fact Gilbert might have complemented her. He smirked as he approached his friends.

"Step one apologize for all the crap I've done, check!"

* * *

"Mission 2 GO!"

"Antonio,"

"Si?"

"Shut up,"

The three friends were peeking out of the bathroom door, Eliza had just walked by and Francis and Antonio were ready to send their friend out to have an 'awesome' conversation with her.

"Ok Gilbert go!" Francis shoved the Prussian out the door and into the chaotic hallway. Gilbert took a second to rebalance before running up towards Elizaveta.

"Hey! Eliza!" Gilbert called, sliding up beside her.

"Oh, hey Gilbert. Can I help you?" She asked confused and a little bit flustered. Gilbert chuckled slightly.

"I just was wondering, what's up?" Gilbert asked.

"Um, I'm walking to German class. Do you always ask things this strangely?" Eliza blinked.

"Uh, um no… I just felt like being strangely awesome!" Gilbert laughed nervously.

"You've been acting strange lately, did you kill my cat?" Eliza asked.

"What?! No! How does that even make sense?!" Gilbert asked shocked. Eliza laughed at the expression he was making.

"I was just making as much 'sense' as you seem to be making," Eliza grinned, then became serious, "though if you do see my cat, let me know. I haven't seen her since yesterday morning."

"I'll keep an eye out, have fun in German class!" Gilbert smiled.

"Bye," Eliza said entering her class room.

* * *

"Ok Gilbert!" Francis instructed him walking around in front of the other two boys carrying a ruler behind his back, "We need to plan our next step, preferably before we get caught skipping class. What information did you gather from her when you two talked earlier?"

"Ah, not much," Gilbert told him, straining to remember any important details, "Oh! Her cat is missing; she wanted me to keep an eye out,"

"Ah ha! C'est magnifique! We will find sa chat! That should definitely get you on her good side," Francis said excitedly, "Antonio, do you have any ideas where we could look first?"

"Well, you could always check Zerök park, it's located near her neighborhood and has lots of places where a cat could get stuck," Antonio suggested, "We could go over there right after school is out,"

"You guys don't have to, you know that right?" Gilbert asked them.

"We know we don't have to, but we want to help you out," Antonio told him happily.

"Well, then it's settled we will go to the park!" Francis announced smiling at his two friends.

* * *

After a long school day of waiting the three friends were wandering around Zerök Park looking for Eliza's lost cat.

"You would think it would be stuck in a tree or something," Gilbert complained, "but we checked all of them!"

"We could always check the playground," Antonio suggested.

"Non, I already checked there," Francis was about to suggest rechecking the forest when they heard a startled meow. The three turned towards the sound.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Gilbert moaned. The cat, which they all assumed was Eliza's, was dangling from the telephone wires.

"Dios Mios,"

"Mon Dieu,"

"Mien Gott..."

Gilbert walked up to the telephone pole and tried to climb it.

"How do cats do this?!" He cried angrily.

"Gil, cats have claws," Antonio reminded him.

"Right… Then how do you suggest we get the cat?"

"Ah! Me and Antonio will wait below and catch the cat if it falls you will have to climb up the pole like that action movie we saw last week," Francis said, when Gilbert gave him a blank look he added, "The one where they climb up the mountain with knives."

"Right!" Gilbert pulled out the pocket knife he had brought in case they had to cut the cat out of something. Francis handed him his pocket knife and Gilbert stuck them both in the pole and proceeded to 'climb' up.

"This is not as easy as the movie made it look Francis!" Gilbert called towards Francis.

"I never said it would be easy Gilbert. Love isn't easy," Francis told him.

"Shut up Francis," Gilbert muttered. After climbing for what felt like ages he finally reached the top of the pole, the cat was still hanging on but just barely, "now what?!"

"You will have to tightrope walk across, Si? But use the opposite wire so you don't knock off the cat and hurry!" Antonio shouted up to him.

"How have you guys not killed me yet?" Gilbert groaned but proceeded to step out on the wire. He shook and fell sideways barely managing to grab one of the wires with one of his hands, "To little tension I should have known," He grumbled and started inching towards the cat, monkey bar style, once he was as close as possible he called down to his friends, "How do I and the cat get down from here?!" both his friends looked at each other before looking back at Gilbert.

"How do I say this?" Francis started.

"We have no idea," Antonio called up bluntly. Gilbert sighed, before grabbing the cat with one arm, as expected the cat started clawing at him and fighting to get away he let go of the rope and wrapped both arms around the cat and dropping down to the ground landing hard on his back.

"I hate… you guys… sometimes," Gilbert wheezed out trying to get some air back into his lungs.

* * *

Eliza was in the kitchen making dinner and listening to her music which was cranked up as much as possible. She was just about to put her dish in the oven when she heard a knock at her door. She set it on the counter and hurried to get the door. When she opened it there was Gilbert covered in cat scratches and grass, but in his arms was a very angry looking Liz.

"Liz!" Eliza cried taking her cat out of Gilbert's arms and giving her a quick squeeze before releasing her into the house.

"How on earth did you find her?" Eliza asked excitedly.

"Well we went to the little park by your house and Liz was dangling from the telephone wires!"

"No way!"

"Yeah way! And so I had to climb the huge pole with only two knives!" As the two talked Antonio and Francis watched from the bushes.

"So it looks like step 3, get the two back as friends, worked like a charm, si Francis?" Antonio whispered to Francis.

"Oui, everything is going according to plan, we'll hook up these two love birds before you know it!"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Look I'm not dead! Just busy. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if I missed any spelling errors!**


End file.
